Good morning everyone. I decided for this post to take 3 phones – the Apple iPhone 7 Plus, Huawei Mate 9 and LG G5 and see which one could take the best shot of an aerial view of Exeter High Street.
Unlike other comparisons, I have stuck all the photos taken through Adobe Lightroom to see what was the best final result that could be obtained.
LG G5 Shots – Normal and Wide Angle
I really like the extra width of the LG G5 wide angle shot.
Huawei Mate 9 – Normal and Monochrome
I do like the images from the Mate 9.
Apple iPhone 7 Plus
The iPhone takes a well balanced shot overall.
So which phone do you prefer and why? Just a quick shout out to Vodafone UK for the loan of the LG G5.
Tonight has been a night of firmware updates for my phones. The Huawei Mate 9 (UK version) only received an update a week or so ago, but just like that, along came B156.
This adds a few new features and the mandatory bug fixes.
One of the most significant new features is 10 x zoom. So there is no hiding from me now!
The Google security patch has also improved from 1st December 2016 to 1st January 2017.
The Huawei Mate 9 has many features within the default camera app. The default camera app is so extensive and also easy to use that there is no need to fork out on any other third party apps.
To prove this point, I gave my Mate 9 to my wife Ellie. Her challenge was to shoot a photo of star trails. She was actually out with a group of friends, all of which were using iPhones.
And she did. Completely unedited and shot using the star trails mode. This was a 13 min exposure. It is really cool shot. It was totally pitch black and a torch was needed to setup the tripod! Her friends were equally as impressed and at the same time disappointed at that their iPhone’s camera app couldn’t do the same.
In reality this would have looked so much better if the camera shutter had been left open for 2 hours.
So next time, when I’m feeling better (currently have man flu), I will attempt a long exposure myself.
The Huawei Mate 9 is promoted having a hybrid zoom that is as good as an optical zoom. With this setup, you can go in point 1 increases of zoom from zero up to 6 x zoom. The next software update should make the zoom 10 times.
Anyway below are 3 shots.
First up, no zoom, just a normal shot taken in auto.
Next 2 x zoom, focusing on the church clock.
Up to 2 x zoom the shots are very good.
Finally the above shot is 6 x zoom.
It is worth noting these were all handheld and at dusk when the lighting was fading.
The Huawei Mate 9 is a beast of a phone. Its camera setup is rather unique too with a 20mp monochrome sensor and a 12mp RGB sensor.
I am still learning about what is possible with the Huawei Mate 9’s camera and trying to push it to its limits.
To celebrate its camera, I have put together a short video of photos captured over the last week. These were all shot in auto, except for 3 shots. Night and light trails were used for these 3 special photos.
Below are a selection of photos from the Huawei Mate 9 camera. The shots below are taken prior to the software update that improves the camera quality further.
The above shot was taken in the monochrome mode.
A close up shot.
Finally the above shot was snapped using the light painting camera mode, silky water.
It has been a period of exciting new tech, and along with all the gadgets, came the new Huawei Mate 9, the official UK version. I picked my Huawei Mate 9 at Three UK from my local store on PAYG. My local store in Plymouth is so friendly and provides a great customer experience.
I will be providing a full detailed review of the Huawei Mate 9 soon but for the time being I filmed a first experience VLOG type video. I have taken lots of photos and video with the phone already and have been very impressed.
In the meantime, enjoy my first impressions video 🙂
Huawei launched yesterday the Huawai Mate 9 and a special version designed by Porsche, the Mate 9 Porsche Edition shown below.
The Mate 9 costs 699 euros and the special Porsche version 1,349 euros. The standard version comes with a 5.9 inch 1080p screen, 4gb ram and 64gb storage and micro SD card support. The flash version has a smaller 5.5 inch QHD display, 6gb ram, 256gb storage and no micro SD card support, the fingerprint sensor on the front, capacitive menu buttons and a curved edge screen. It also has Porsche Design branding. Both phones come with the new dual camera setup co engineered with Leica, a 20mp monochrome sensor and a 12mp RGB colour sensor. OIS is present too but only for the 12mp lens. Both lenses are f/2.2. Both feature a 4,000 mAH battery and Huawei’s super fast charging system that fully charges the battery in 90 mins. Out of the box the phones come with Android 7.0 and Huawei new EMUI v5. The processor is the latest in house Kirin 960.
On paper the Mate 9 plays it safe with a familiar design. However, the phone does come with many of the key aspects to make a good phone but in today’s world a 5.9 inch screen really should be QHD. At 1080p, this means you are only looking at 373 PPI. On the other hand the Porsche Edition has a smaller 5.5 inch display and a QHD screen, yet costs twice as much as the standard Mate 9. This is crazy pricing and out of order when curved display phones from other companies are available for around £650 or less.
I will be interested to see how the camera performs and I am sure the creative options with the new dual lens layout will be excellent. However, I do not think it is acceptable for a flagship phone not to have HDR as an automatic option. With the Mate 9 you need to select it in the camera mode option menu. This is where the powerful processing done by the Google Pixel makes it so good and from a quick camera comparison I have seen between the 2 phones, the Pixel was the clear champion on photo quality.
However, it is early days and I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these phones and test it properly. What do you think?
